Tuesday, May 19, 2015

One Last Time at One Market

This evening, I had the opportunity to learn from the amazing alums, sponsors, and board members. In addition to the list, I was able to meet our chaperone, Alfredo Chan-Law. He's a math teacher at Hercules Middle School; moreover, I knew who he was prior to our dinner. I was able to talk to my cohort about the stressful and tiring past weeks of AP testing. It was a great time for gathering and socializing with the people who made the Ivy League Connection a reality.

While at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station, I found myself and my father to be the first persons to arrive. I was anxious to be the first person to arrive because I was relying on Don Gosney to be the man to look for. Like finding Waldo, I needed to search for Don to be certain that the location was correct. But being the first ones to arrive made my stomach hatch more butterflies out of cocoons. Luckily I saw Don come out later and life was coming to a stable state again. As time passed, more and more people came and soon we all were on our way to One Market in San Francisco. It has been a while since I last took BART, so my balance was definitely off when we were riding to our destination. We soon entered One Market to find ourselves meeting new faces. The few people that I talked to prior to the dinner were Erica Perry, Todd Groves, Don Kuehne, and Samantha Berg. I was able to learn more about college life and the delicious food available on campus. In addition, I was able to learn about their personal college experiences.

I sat with Jason Levy, Don Kuehne, Erica Perry, and Charles Ramsey for this Ivy League Connection Dinner. During our dinner, we touched on different subjects such as Cornell's campus, their experiences and funny moments. One of the many stories that stuck out was Jason's funny story about his Winter experience. I enjoyed the details and description Jason used when discussing his experience. For example when talking about the spectacular Spring, he mentioned the flowers to be red, orange, and yellow; the sign of vitality for the blooming, or already bloomed flowers. I definitely had a fun time discussing my goals and learning from the alums and sponsors at my table. I mentioned the urge to bring back to my community, especially the knowledge and experience I gain when I arrive at Cornell. It was an honor for Charles Ramsey to remember me from the past year, from Brown's dinner and the Woman & Leadership course. On the topic of women, we discussed the many different sites to see while touring, such as Seneca Falls or the women's museum. I truly gained enough knowledge, and probably pounds, from this nice night.

I must say that I am proud of Julie Lum, my fellow ILCer going to Cornell for Hotel Management for speaking at tonight's dinner. I am glad that she became a leader and took the opportunity to reflect on what she hoped to gain while going to Cornell. Plus, she concluded with thanking everyone who made this all possible. The ILC administrators, board members, sponsors, alums, parents, and chaperone who support us and make this life-changing opportunity possible. As a rising senior, I realize that this is my last chance with the Ivy League Connection. This will be my last time being an actual part of the Ivy League Connection, and I am proud to be one of the 305 students who received scholarships to go to these prestigious schools on the east coast. This will be my last time, and to finish my last time while celebrating Ivy League Connection's tenth anniversary, I must say that I was to not step over my comfort zone while I am at Cornell, but to expand it.